Magnalith is dense but concise, expressionistic but corporeal music. Tangentially metal, curiously harmonic. Unbridled structural deviations see handbrake slides into weird, cinematic passages that lurch back into leviathan riffs.

The second EP, “Oblivion,” builds out the fantastical but humanistic atmosphere of the debut, “Instrumentality” (★★★★, Muzic.net.nz). The hallmarks of experimental vignettes, conceptual lyricism, pathos and sagacious mixing remain. The new release accelerates the harmonic and cerebral qualities that capture the imagination of post-metal, prog and hard rock fans.

For songwriter Mathew Bosher, EP represents a return to music. Production was interrupted by the premature birth of his son; a welcome but harrowing arrival. Bosher spent a day in the recording studio, then a hundred in the neonatal intensive care unit with his family. He stopped listening to music for the first few weeks of his son’s care, recognising that any songs would be imbued with his family's trauma. Now the little one is thriving. Completing the recordings was a kind of celebration of the urgent and irrepressible creative force.

The record is the sixth endeavour in Bosher’s partnership with Dave Holmes (Jakob, Saint Agnes, Maisha) whose bandmate, drummer H Walker of Kerretta, contributed a devastatingly percussive performance. Over the course of more than a decade, Bosher and Holmes have shared intrepid experiences recording in a wild West Coast surf town, a serene Coatesville farm and the 1939 heritage vessel moored on the River Thames. On the new EP, their shared interest in curious melodic and compositional features pushes Magnalith into unexpected metallurgy.